Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Dear Comic Art Fan,

The Hero InitiativeWake Up and Draw auctions, created in tribute to Jack Kirby on his birthday, are now online at CAF! There is plenty of great artwork to bid on including pieces by Alan Davis, Bart Sears, Chris Moreno, Cully Hamner, Darick Robertson, Fred Hembeck, Gene Ha, Grace Allison, and more! Get some fantastic art and contribute to charity all at once! Click the link to bid!

IDW Limited has launched an art competition on the website Infected By Art. The Grand Prize Winner will not only receive exclusive Locke & Key merchandise but also the opportunity to be a paid participant in an upcoming IDW Limited original art project!

Press Release:

Draw or paint your personal (or imagined!) fears into the bottle so you can conquer them once and for all!

Fears... We've all got them to one degree or another. Your challenge is to create a work of art that shows off your real or imagined fears using the image below as a template to follow. There is no fee to enter this contest, and we're providing some great prizes as well, including the opportunity for the Grand Prize Winner to be a paid participant in an upcoming IDW Limited original art project!

Once the November 17th deadline at midnight is hit, Locke & Key creators Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez will each select one Runner Up and together they will also select the Grand Prize Winner. Fan voting will help select the 3rd Runner Up.

Remember, you have to use this image as the basis for what you create, but let your imaginations run wild! We allow each artist to submit up to 3 images towards the competition. Fan Voters will be allowed to vote for a maximum of 2 pieces of artwork they feel are most worthy. If you have any questions please contact Infected by Art.

The set up - as it appeared in LOCKE & KEY - is Kinsey (the female character) has removed aspects from her head she doesn't like, inside the bottle is the physical manifestation of her fear & sadness. Details on How To Enter.

THE IMAGE FILE YOU NEED TO WORK FROM

In order to submit your artwork to this contest, you must first save this image to your computer. To create a piece of traditional artwork you will need to transfer it to whatever surface you wish to work on (bluelined, etc), or use this file as the basis for of your digital artwork. Your entry must contain all elements from this image in order to qualify for entry.

ABOUT LOCKE & KEY
Acclaimed suspense novelist and New York Times best-selling author Joe Hill (NOS4A2, Horns, Heart-Shaped Box) creates an all-new story of dark fantasy and wonder: Locke & Key. Written by Hill and featuring astounding artwork from Gabriel Rodriguez, Locke & Key tells of Keyhouse, an unlikely New England mansion, with fantastic doors that transform all who dare to walk through them... and home to a hate-filled and relentless creature that will not rest until it forces open the most terrible door of them all... Visit the LOCKE & KEY website for more information about the series!

I'm a 43 year old comic retailer from Paris, France. I have been selling comics for over 16 years now. I was born and grew up in Germany, where I discovered German translations of US comic books at a very young age. When I was 13 years old I started to work in a small comic shop on the weekends. This lasted for three years and then I stopped reading comics. I rediscovered them shortly after moving to Paris in the early 90s and have been collecting (with a three or four year break) ever since....

2. Which piece in your gallery is your favorite?

That's a rather difficult question to answer. I really like my Blazing Combat page by Wally Wood a lot, but I also like my Bernie Wrightson pin-up and my Steve Ditko page. I recently purchased an Alex Toth Creepy page which is also a favorite of mine. But let's say that my favorite is the Wood page, he put a lot of work into that page and I never grow tired looking at it.

3. How long have you been collecting comic art and what prompted you to start?

I started collecting original art around 1997. I concentrated especially on the two artists that I liked most during the 80s; John Byrne and George Perez. I then started to collect some Silver Age artists like John Buscema, Jack Kirby, and John Romita. I also had the chance to acquire some nice Marie Severin/Will Elder and Harvey Kurtzman EC pages.

I was attracted to Silver Age comics in the early 90s so it seemed natural to extend my collecting focus to original art when I had the chance to get my hands on some nice pages.

I sadly decided to stop collecting around 2001 and sold most of the art and comics I owned then. That was the biggest mistake of my life! Around 2005 the bug bit me again and I slowly started collecting again.

4. How do you display/store your collection at home?

I have a few pages that are framed hanging on my walls at home, but most of my pages are in mylars, which are then stocked in portfolios.

5. What are your top five most wanted original pages or commissions?

I will try to be realistic with my answer to this question. I would of course love to own a Ditko Spidey page or a Wood EC cover, but I probably never will.